The Unofficial Blogger of the Chicago Cubs in Canada

Cubs Secure Home Field For NLDS and NLCS

It was a pretty exciting day for Chicago Cubs, their fans and David Ross. Yesterday, the Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 with Jake Arrieta earning his 18th victory of the season. Before the shellacking, Cubs catcher and clubhouse grandfather David Ross, was honoured for his years in baseball.

“The things they said about me is kind of overwhelming, and the way they treat me, and how much respect they have for me,” Ross said. “I’m a guy who tries to work hard and ends up with some years in the big leagues and has done some fun things, and with this group, trying to win a ring this year, the emotion comes from looking back when you reflect on your career. I don’t try to do that, because it gets really emotional.”

On top of the win, the Cubs clinched home field advantage through the NLDS and the NLCS after the Pittsburgh Pirates downed the Washington Nationals 6-5.

Arrieta now has 18 wins on the season and is in a three way tie topping the national league with Max Scherzer and teammate Jon Lester.

“That was more reminiscent of what we saw last year,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Arrieta, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner. “He’s not 100 percent there, but that was pretty darn good. [The Cardinals are] a good hitting lineup. That lineup they threw out today was a great test to see where he’s at.”

Of course this is the best time for Arrieta to get going, he struck out 10 batters in the rout of the Cardinals.

“The big thing for me is controlling my effort,” Arrieta said. “When I’m able to do that, my stuff speaks for itself. … Sometimes the competitiveness, the stubbornness gets in the way. Once I push that to the side, the stuff works pretty well.”

October 7th the Cubs begin the journey for the history books. Their 98th win of the season was the most by a Cubs team since 1945, which was the last time they played in a World Series game. Another interesting fact is if the Cubs can win two more games for their 100th win, it’ll mark the first time they have reached that milestone since 1935 which was another year they made it to the World Series. The bad news in winning 100 games in a season is the unfortunate statistic of during the last 30 seasons, a major league team finishing the season with 100+ victories, have only won the big prize twice. That was the Yankees in 1998 and 2009.